Posted on 07/17/2011 6:25:08 AM PDT by SanFranDan
FULL TITLE: Voice of Thomas Edison's talking doll is heard again after 123 years as scientists crack the code of mysterious metal ring
For decades it lay in the bottom of a secretary's desk drawer, its purpose unknown.
But now, 123 year after it was made, the secret of this bent metal ring, which was found in Thomas Edison's laboratory, has finally been uncovered.
Scientists have found that the microscopic grooves on the ring make up the tune of 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star' and mark the world's first attempt at a talking doll and the dawn of America's recording industry
Using advanced imaging technology they have recovered a 12 second sound recording of woman reciting a verse of the children's song.
They believe the tin ring was intended to be the key component of one of Thomas Edison's talking dolls. Historians think Edison hired the woman to make the recording less than two years before he unsuccessfully put the first talking doll on the market.
'Based on the date of fall 1888, it is the oldest American-made recording of a woman's voice that we can listen to today,' said Patrick Feaster, a historian at Indiana University in Bloomington.
Mr Feaster pored over historical documents and 19th-century newspaper reports to piece together the story behind the recording.
Edison hoped to mass-produce the toys, but the era's rudimentary technology meant that to make 100 dolls, Edison would have to get artists to recite the lullaby 100 times.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Words fail.
This is truly awesome.
All of our entertainment, much of our world’s sights and sounds that we can share with each other came from this man’s genius.
Not bad for a greedy, dead white guy.
Not as good as the Talking Dog saying “I wuv you”.
Not as good as the Talking Dog saying “I wuv you”.
“Math class is tough!”
- Barbie, July, 1992
The oldest recorded voice is from France in the 1860’s. A woman’s voice recorded on smoked glass.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7318180.stm
Leni
I remember reading long ago that speakers had to shout and enunciate very clearly with Edison’s early recording technology. You can hear that in the woman’s voice. It is indeed eerie — who was the woman? What was her life like?
Researchers say that women’s shapes have changed just since WWII. Look at Marilyn Monroe, she’d be consider fat nowadays and women’s voices have dropped an octave or so.
“Edison hoped to mass-produce the toys, but the era’s rudimentary technology meant that to make 100 dolls, Edison would have to get artists to recite the lullaby 100 times.”
He didn’t think to simply replay the original to create a new copy?
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6,500 year old voices - voices from 6,500 recording extract
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lulnv7klDBs
As bad as the original recording sounded, copies of it probably wouldn’t be recognizable as a human voice.
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